Samsung is rolling out its Gaming Hub for select 2022 smart TVs, cementing itself as the first smart TV brand to embrace cloud gaming. Gaming Hub provides an all-in-one interface for services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, and NVIDIA GeForce Now. It even integrates with Twitch!
Gaming Hub is the first home for Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming smart TV app. This exclusivity, combined with the hub’s all-in-one nature, is a serious endorsement for cloud gaming. I’m especially impressed by the Gaming Hub’s interface, which treats these cloud gaming platforms like traditional streaming services—it even recommends new games to play!
Gaming hub is rolling out to the following TVs:
The rise of cloud gaming presents an interesting opportunity for smart TV manufacturers. As you probably remember, the very first smart TVs eliminated the need for DVD players (or even cable boxes) because they could access streaming services. Now, brands like Samsung can use cloud gaming to push traditional game consoles out of the equation.
It seems that this is the beginning of the end for console gaming. But there are still several hurdles to overcome. Cloud gaming requires a stable (and fairly fast) internet connection, and it consumes a ton of data. For customers with data caps or flakey internet, cloud gaming is currently a non-starter.
We’re also unsure of how gamers will react to this tectonic shift. Some people like to own their games, while others (myself included) tend to leave consoles offline.
Source: Samsung
